It has also been said that quotations are the best bits of the best minds, and the records of the funniest, truest, wisest and most memorable things anyone has ever said. That’s also why, though expressed through somebody else’s words, quotations—or at least the most evergreen of them—are perhaps the best way to express one’s thoughts and feelings. They can have deep and meaningful impact to anyone.
If you are a writer or a journalist, but even if you are simply writing something—a term paper, sermon, blog post, etc.—quotations are great devices to put that extra “something” into what you are writing. They are great ways to provide evidence for a thesis statement or premises. They can make a difference in an essay, article or book, they make great hooks or attention-grabbers, and are certainly a powerful way of inspiring and motivating people.
They are sometimes mantras for patience and calm, some other times eloquent remarks for use in sophisticated company, and some other times they are jokes that shake the whole room. Good quotations can be irreverent, eccentric, funny, but always they possess great power, and always they are thoughtful, surprising, and, despite their brevity, remarkably rich and often profound, poetic and enlightening. And as such they are worth preserving, repeating, and bringing into our future before they’re forgotten.
As it was not enough, for those who love history—but not only for them—a good collection of quotations may be something like an oral history of history itself, told both by its celebrities and by the people working behind the scenes.
As for those numerous collections of thoughts and sayings we like to call “Favorite Quotations,” it must be said that they are a true record and mirror of an individual’s personality, of his or her complex psychological and cultural history. To make an example, my own favorite quotations have changed over time: some of them have been taken off the list, while some have been added, and that, of course, not by chance, but by thought and will, in accordance with my personal evolution as a human being. One’s favorite quotations reflect the width and depth of his/her interests and the extent of his/her knowledge of life and view of the world.
Great quotations are more than just a source of pleasure. They are like fine wine matured over time. They are the condensed wisdom of the ages. They bridge time and space. They connect the living and the dead. Someone once said: ‘Quotations make the world go round.’ I think that’s not an exaggeration.
From my website's Favorite Quotations page.
